282 ENGLISH BOTANY'. 



And where 

 The fun'rall trump sounds you are there. 

 I shall be made 

 Ere long a fleeting shade ; 



Pray come, 

 And do some honour to my tomb ; 



Do not deny 

 My last request, for I 



Will be 

 Thankful to you or friends for me." 



Shakspeare mentions the yew as being used for bows : — 



*' The very beadsmen learn to bend their bows 

 Of double fatal yew against thy State." 



He also tells us that in the witches' cauldron in "Macbeth" one of the ingredients 

 was "sHps of yew;" and, alluding to its use in funerals, he says, "My shroud of 

 white stuck all with yew." 



Gray's lines in his " Elegy " are well known :— 



" Beneath those rugged elms, that yew tree's shade. 

 Where heaves the turf in many a mouldering heap, 

 Each in his narrow cell securely laid. 



The rude forefathers of the hamlet sleep." 



Wordsworth gives us a description of the yew which must be qu.oted : — 



" There is a yew tree, pride of Lorton Vale, 

 Which to this day stands single in the midst 

 Of its own darkness, as it stood of yore, 

 Not loth to furnish weapons in the hands 

 Of Umfraville or Percy ere they marched 

 To Scotland's heaths, or those that cross'd the sea 

 And di'ew their sounding bows at Agincourt, 

 Perhaps at earlier Cressy or Poictiers, 

 Of vast circumference and gloom profound, 

 This solitary tree ! A living tiling, 

 Produced too slowly ever to decay ; 

 Of form and aspect too magnificent 

 To be destroyed. But worthier still of note 

 Arc those fraternal four of Borrowdale, 

 Joined in one solemn and capacious grove ; 

 Hugo trunks ! and each particular trunk a growth 

 Of intertwisted fibres, serpentine, 

 Upcoiling, and immediately convolved, 

 Nor uninformed by phantasy and looks 

 That threaten the profane ; a pillar'd shade 

 Upon whose grassless floor of red- brown hue 

 By sheddings from the pining umbrage tinged 

 Perennially ; beneath whose sable roof 

 Of boughs, as if for festal purpose decked 

 With unrejoicing berries, ghostly shapes 



